It is often necessary, particularly in electrical test and measurement applications, to be able to make available the electrical signals of a particular electrical device, such as a printed circuit board, to another electrical device. In such applications, many test and measurement devices, including logic analysis systems and problems, require the use of a high density interconnect to interface with a device under test, such as a printed circuit board, via an electrical connector.
In the connection of electrical circuit devices, such as printed circuit boards, an interconnect that is seated in a connector with contacts molded to match the design of the connector is commonly used. Using this technique forces a designer to use standard off-the-shelf pre-configured molded connectors or to design and tool a customized molded connector. Use of standard off-the-shelf pre-configured molded connectors may not be customized since they are pre-configured to a certain specification and are thus not flexible. The design and tooling required to create a customized molded connector is thus both costly and time consuming. Moreover, a customized molded connector is not flexible, since each connector of a different size and/or specification would have to be designed and tooled. Because of the time and cost associated with a customized molded connection, it is not an efficient solution for low volume production where only a small number of connectors need to be created.
Also in test and measurement applications, it is desirable to locate electrical circuitry as close to the target being tested as possible, particularly when dealing with fast signals. In the testing of electrical devices, a termination network is commonly used to minimize reflections between the device under test (target) and the test and measurement device or probe interconnecting to the target. Since molded connectors do not allow electrical circuitry to be placed at the connection point of the connector contact area, there is no provision for having connector termination networks at the interface to the target, thereby causing the termination network to be located further away from the target than is preferable. In this configuration, the physical location of the termination network is important. The spacing of termination networks or circuitry away from the interconnect contact area can introduce unwanted parasitic electrical effects, particularly when measuring fast signals, which can have an adverse impact on accurate signal measurement. Thus, using molded connectors forces termination network circuitry or other needed electrical circuitry to be located further away from the target than is preferable.
Molded connectors additionally have several deficiencies because they are tooled. Using a tooling technique to create a molded connector prohibits creation of an extremely low profile molded connector which in turn increases the required overall profile size of an electrical device to which the connector is attached. Additionally, in molded connectors, the contacts are typically molded into the connector itself Over time, these contacts tend to oxidize and corrode which may affect the electrical performance of the electrical circuitry.